Albany council candidate arrested on felony drug charges

Sam Coleman, who ran for a seat on Albany’s Common Council as a write-in candidate last month, was one of seven people arrested Tuesday on high-level felony drug charges in a raid in which roughly four pounds of cocaine was seized from a Washington Avenue home.

Crack-cocaine was cooking on a stove top in the kitchen on the second floor of 575 Washington Ave. when police busted into the apartment containing Coleman and other suspects, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

Coleman, 42, was charged with first- and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. The first charge is one of the most serious drug-related charges in the state and can carry a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

Shackled and dressed in a gray hooded sweatshirt, Coleman was arraigned Wednesday in front of Judge Rachel Kretser in Albany City Court and sent to Albany County jail without bail.

A visible face in the city, Coleman is a member of the Albany Community Police Advisory Board. In the most recent election cycle, Coleman ran for the 5th Ward Common Council seat, but lost in a primary to the eventual winner of the general election, Mark Robinson.

Robinson himself faced questions about his own drug-related past. He served six years in a federal prison following a conviction stemming from his family’s infamous North Swan Street marijuana empire. Reached for comment on Coleman’s arrest, Robinson said, “Throughout my whole campaign, it seemed like (Coleman) used my past as his platform.”